A Fairytale Birthday... For A Special Lady at Dream Valley :)

Hello there folks!! :)

Well, I thought I’d be all prepared with this post as I had the card sorted over a week ago but my body’s had other ideas again... and now I just can’t get my head in gear to write either... so big apologies if this comes out even more garbled than usual!! :S lol Anyways, better late than never- here goes...

It’s time for another challenge over at Dream Valley and this is one that’s had all us DT girls v excited over the last couple of weeks as we have a fab sponsor... but first, the challenge itself!!lol This fortnight we’d like to see your cards ‘For A Special Lady’... a lovely easy challenge indeed!! :) And our fabulous sponsor is Krista Smith of Saturated Canary, who is offering the winner a $10 voucher for her Etsy store!! :) And she also gave us lucky things on the DT a chance to choose an image for our projects- hence the excitement!! :D So- thank you, Krista!! :D

Now, as some of you will know, I’ve been kind of avoiding my papercrafting supplies recently but I needed a card for one of my best friends and this challenge and the beautiful digi I chose were perfect to tempt me back to my desk to try to make her something special :) I was wary to start with, not sure I wanted to do it, but I loved every minute in the end!! :)

I tried to keep it simple to show off Krista’s gorgeous image and also the beautiful Bo Bunny Gabrielle paper that my friend and I both love... and also to go a bit easy on myself ‘cos I was feeling a tad rusty after a month and more off!!lol 

I chose the amazing ‘Rapunzel, a Princess’ image... I hadn’t seen this one before but I knew I had to colour her the moment I saw her!! :) My ongoing mission to improve my colouring is currently stuck in a hair-obsession phase and I think I have been getting better... but when I think that I only plucked up the courage to try colouring my first Simply Sassy stamp about six months ago (having had several in my stash for at least six months before that!!) because I was so bad at colouring hair and Krista draws such gorgeous hairstyles on her images that I was a tad intimidated... and now I jumped at the chance to colour this one when I’d have had nowhere to hide had it gone wrong as it’s a DT project... well, that has given my kinda shaky crafting (and life atm :S) confidence a much needed boost!! :) :)

I’ve added a second pic as I struggled to get the colours right in the pics and I think this one's the best likeness :S Thank you to Krista’s images, ProMarker Fine Nibs and MiC colouring tuts for the improvements!!lol

This card is based on the one I made with that first Sassy last year, which I loved but haven’t got around to sharing on here yet... I used the same paper pack and similar ideas for layout, embellishments, etc. but this time I chose this gorgeous butterfly paper and had a play with my new gilding flakes and Flitter Glu and they do look similar but quite different...!!lol The sentiment is stamped with the Flitter Glu and it worked a treat first time...I now have so many ideas buzzing around my head for stamps I want to try this with!! :)

The butterfly is gilded, too, but I just traced over the design on the paper with a Quickie Glue pen... so easy but it looks so stunning... and is incredibly difficult to photograph to in any way do it justice!! :S I smooched some Distress Stickles over the wings with my finger for interest, too- love doing this!!lol

Everything is distressed and inked and the corners got some Stickles, too :) I tore the corners off one of the sheets from the pack as so many of the designs have a lot of lovely detail on the corners, but which would almost all be lost if you trimmed the sheets enough to fit on a 6” card... and that made me sad!! :( Not sure what I’ll do with the middle of the sheet mind!!lol

The List:

• 6” Sq. Scalloped cream card blank
• Saturated Canary digi- Rapunzel, a Princess
• ProMarkers to colour (see picture below, click to view it bigger- the Copics are the blender and a pale Warm Grey)
• Papers from Bo Bunny’s Gabrielle pad
• Gilding Flakes (Variegated Green from Crafty Notions) with Indigo Blu Flitter Glu and a Quickie Glue pen to adhere
• Distress Inks – Antique Linen and Vintage Photo
• Sentiment stamp from Cat’s Life Press
• Cream Seam binding from The Ribbon Girl
• Antique Linen Distress Stickles
• Sakura Clear Stardust pen
• Cream Flat-backed Pearls from stash

I’d like to enter this card in the following challenges: Saturated Canary – Happy Birthday :) ; The Stampman – Shabby Chic or Distressed :) ; Paper Sundaes – Ribbons and Pearls :) ; MAWTT – Flowers or Gardens (my butterfly):) ; Creative Inspirations – Anything Goes :)

Well, thank you for stopping by today!! :) I’m sorry I’m still being so rubbish at leaving comments... really hoping I’ll be well enough to do better with that soon... in the meantime, thank you so much to those of you kind enough to still leave comments for me!! :) And hello and thanks to my new Followers, too- I'll try and visit you as soon as I can!! :) I hope you’ll join in our challenge- pop over to the DV blog to see all the fantastic creations from the rest of the team, too!! :) I hope you’re having a good weekend despite this awful weather... here in Manchester it’s like the middle of winter... a very stormy winter at that!! :S Tomorrow’s supposed to be lovely, though, so fingers crossed!! :)